- Key People:
- Leo X
- Thomas Erastus
excommunication
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What is excommunication in religion?
Excommunication is a form of religious censure that excludes a person from the communion of believers, the rites or sacraments of a church, and the rights of church membership, but not necessarily from membership in the church itself.
Some churches prefer the term church discipline instead of excommunication. Reformed churches authorize the session (minister and elders) to exercise discipline, including excommunication. The Lutheran tradition defines excommunication as denying communion to public sinners. In the Mennonite-Amish tradition, excommunication entails social shunning.
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Why might someone be excommunicated?
Excommunication is a form of religious censure that excludes a person from church rites, sacraments, and membership rights.
Grounds for excommunication vary. In Roman Catholicism, actions that could lead to excommunication include abortion, heresy, physical attacks on the Pope, and revealing confidential information from confession. Reformed churches may excommunicate for offenses that lead to suspension from the Lord's Supper. Some traditions, like the Mennonite-Amish, extend excommunication to social shunning. Absolution is possible through confession and penance, though the authority to grant it varies.
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Which religions use excommunication as a practice?
Excommunication, a form of ecclesiastical censure, is practiced across various religions and Christian denominations. It's a method of exclusion from communion, rites, sacraments, and church membership rights.
Churches that employ excommunication or a similar form of discipline:
* Roman Catholicism distinguishes between toleratus and vitandus excommunication, with the latter being more severe and reserved for grave offenses.
* Reformed churches authorize the session (minister and elders) to exercise discipline, including excommunication.
* The Lutheran tradition defines excommunication as denying communion to public sinners.
* In Anglicanism, bishops have the right to excommunicate, though it is rarely exercised.
* Free Church traditions and the Mennonite-Amish tradition may practice rigorous discipline, with the latter also entailing social shunning.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are the effects of being excommunicated from a religious group?
Excommunication is a formal religious censure that excludes a person from the communion of believers, the rites or sacraments of a church, and the rights of church membership.
Effects of excommunication can vary. In Roman Catholicism, the excommunicated person is barred from the sacraments of the church as well as from Christian burial. If excommunicated persons confess their sins and undergo penance, they are absolved. Some churches may prefer the term church discipline and vest the authority for carrying out excommunication in church leadership. In the Mennonite-Amish tradition, excommunication also entails social shunning.
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Can someone rejoin a religion after being excommunicated?
Yes, an excommunicated person can rejoin a religion after being excommunicated. If excommunicated persons confess their sins and perform penance, they are absolved. In some instances, any priest can grant absolution, but in many others, only a bishop or the Holy See can, except when someone is in danger of death.
Excommunication is a form of censure that excludes a person from the rites or sacraments of a church, but not necessarily from membership. Some churches prefer the term church discipline instead of excommunication.
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How has excommunication influenced the history of religions?
Excommunication is a form of religious censure that excludes a person from the communion of believers, religious rites or sacraments, and church membership rights.
Across Christianity, administering exclusion is practiced by all churches and denominations. In Roman Catholicism, excommunication can be toleratus (tolerated) or vitandus (to be avoided), with the latter being a more severe form announced publicly by the Holy See for grave offenses. Excommunicated persons are barred from sacraments and Christian burial unless they confess and do penance.
Some churches prefer "church discipline" over excommunication. Reformed churches authorize the session (minister and elders) to carry out discipline, including excommunication. Lutheran tradition, following Martin Luther, defines excommunication as denying communion to public sinners.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
excommunication, form of ecclesiastical censure by which a person is excluded from the communion of believers, the rites or sacraments of a church, and the rights of church membership but not necessarily from membership in the church as such. Some method of exclusion belongs to the administration of all Christian churches and denominations, indeed of all religious communities.
In Roman Catholicism
The Roman Catholic Church formerly distinguished between two kinds of excommunication: that which renders a person toleratus, tolerated, and that which renders a person vitandus, one who is to be avoided. The second and more severe form required—except for certain crimes that incurred it automatically—that the culprit be announced by name in public as vitandus, in most cases by the Holy See itself; this was reserved for the gravest offenses. Both kinds of excommunication barred the excommunicated person from the sacraments of the church as well as from Christian burial. In cases of excommunicated clergy, the censure barred them from administering sacraments and holding or exercising ecclesiastical offices, titles, rights, and privileges.
In 1983 the Code of Canon Law was revised by Pope John Paul II to denote the two kinds of excommunication as being latae sententiae, automatic, and ferendae sententiae, that which has been imposed through a canonical trial. The Code of Canon Law also contains a specified list of actions that incur excommunication, which include abortion, violation of the confidentiality of confession, absolution by a priest of one who has committed a sin with the priest’s assistance, profanation of the consecrated Communion host (sacrilege), consecration of a bishop without Vatican approval, a physical attack on the pope, schism, heresy, and “abandoning the faith” (apostasy). If excommunicated persons confess their sins and undergo penance, they are absolved. In some cases this absolution may come from any priest, but in many others it is reserved to the bishop or even to the Holy See alone, save in periculo mortis (when the excommunicated person is in danger of death).
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Excommunication should be distinguished from two related forms of censure, suspension and interdict. Suspension applies only to clergy and denies them some or all of their rights. Interdict does not exclude a believer from the communion of the faithful but forbids certain sacraments and sacred offices, sometimes to an entire area, town, or region.
In Protestant churches
Some churches do not use the term excommunication, preferring to speak of church discipline. Reformed churches vest the authority for exercising discipline and, if need be, carrying out excommunication, in the session, which consists of the minister and the elders. The 30th article of the Westminster Confession of 1646 specified “admonition, suspension from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for a season, and excommunication from the church” as the proper steps of discipline. The Lutheran tradition has followed Martin Luther’s catechism in speaking of “the power of the keys” and in defining excommunication as the denial of the communion to public and obstinate sinners; the clergy and the congregation together have the right to exercise such discipline. In Anglicanism the bishops have the right to excommunicate, but this right is almost never exercised. Where a Congregational polity and the principle of “believers’ baptism” are observed, discipline is often very rigorous. In American denominations of the Free Church tradition, the term churching a sinner refers to excommunication, while in the Mennonite-Amish tradition excommunication also entails social “shunning.”